Coach’s Corner
Most big organizational structures are based on Taylorism; something that has been in place for so long takes time to unwind. Scrum has been around for over 20 years, but a lot of large organizations have been around for far longer than that. Even newer organizations likely have employees who are used to the older, pre-Scrum ways of doing things.
But change is possible. As a Scrum master, you can unwind old policies and create new ones every day! A great way to figure out where to start (or continue) creating change in your organization is to perform this exercise, which is inspired by the liberating structure, 15% Solutions:[6]
-
Gather all the Scrum masters in your organization.
-
Discuss with them how far your organization has come in terms of transitioning to the Scrum way of doing things and how much is still left to do. If it’s helpful, reference the Taylorism vs. Scrum info we presented in this chapter.
-
Have everyone in the group spend five minutes on their own answering the following question: What’s within my control that I can change to get our organization 15% closer to where it needs to be?
-
Put people in groups of two to four, and have each person take three minutes to share their 15% Solution with their group. Make sure that the people who aren’t sharing are actively listening and not giving feedback or advice.
-
Finally, have each team member spend five minutes sharing their idea(s) again—but this time encourage the other team members to ask questions and give feedback to each 15% Solution.
Thinking in terms of 15% Solutions can keep people from feeling overwhelmed. Concentrating on what’s within our control and finding a way to get 15% closer to where we want to be can be a powerful exercise.
In this chapter, we covered some of the old practices that Scrum often competes against in organizations. Next, we’ll delve into how we can break bad Scrum by concentrating on the values and principles that influence behaviors both within a Scrum team and in the wider organization.